5. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers--2008: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are really the perfect example of a band that gets what it is. They've never been cool but at the same time, they've never been uncool. They're a traditionalist, Rolling Stones-meets-Byrds band, that has spent most of the last three and a half decades making strong, untranscendent rock and roll. And in 2008, they performed a strong, solid set at the Super Bowl halftime show. I do have to deduct points based on their song selection (three of the four songs came from a Tom Petty solo album, and yes, there is a difference between Tom Petty solo and Tom Petty with the Heartbreakers and the latter is better), but "Runnin' Down a Dream" is a grand song to play at the Super Bowl, and when a band can play a song about a girl committing suicide ("American Girl") and nobody bats an eye, that is rock and roll at its finest.
4. Michael Jackson--1993: As I've said before, Michael Jackson was not a great musician, but he was a great performer. He was, especially at his peak (though this probably qualifies as slightly past his peak), the perfect person to do the halftime show. And this was a vital halftime show--once the biggest star in the world did the halftime show, Up With People was screwed. His performance provoked the ratings of the game to go UP, somehow. And his song selection was pretty strong too ("Jam", "Billie Jean"--his best song and nobody will ever convince me it's close, and "Black or White").
3. Paul McCartney--2005: The Super Bowl the year prior, with the wardrobe malfunction, sucked. I hated the music in it to such an extent that even being the fifteen year-old boy I was, the presence of boobies didn't make it much better. So in 2005, they brought in the living dean of popular music. It's that simple. If Paul McCartney is on the bill, he will never not be the final act. With all the great bands at the Olympics and at the Hurricane Sandy benefit concert, it centered around Sir Paul. There were several "safe" elements about this show--the songs, the selection in and of itself, and the decided lack of wardrobe malfunctions. But Sir Paul could have come out and taken a bow and it still would have been better than the awful Rolling Stones (who I like) performance the next year.
2. U2--2002: I didn't grasp the greatness of this performance at the time because I was too busy freaking out about the Rams, but upon further replays, this was pretty great. Could any band other than U2 have done what they did? Regardless of your opinion on their music, they are the ultimate stadium band. Their stadium shows are practically Billy Graham revivals. "Beautiful Day", still a fresh new song at the time was good enough on its own to make this list, but "Where the Streets Have No Name" being played with the names of 9/11 victims scrolling in the background...amazing.
1. Prince--2007: Prince is simply a genius. He will always be compared to Michael Jackson, because they were both super-popular solo African-American artists during the same time frame. But Prince was in a class of his own. He wasn't just a great vocalist and a great showman--he was a spectacular guitarist/multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, and in his halftime show of the pretty bad Super Bowl 41 allowed him to flaunt all of his many powers. He played bits of six songs and even though he's one of the best songwriters of his generation, three were covers. The three highlights were, in order--his performance of his best hard rock song ("Let's Go Crazy"), his scathing/soulful/fierce Foo Fighters cover ("Best of You", in a version that members of the band have admitted is better than their original), and his too-grand-for-words rendition of "Purple Rain", which had all the guitar heroics of his original but also included AN ACTUAL RAINSTORM STARTING DURING THE SONG. God Bless You, Prince.
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